July 3 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Around 40 people kidnapped by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), linked to the Islamic State jihadist group, have managed to escape in recent days after clashes between the group and Mai Mai militiamen in Ituri province, located in the eastern Republic. Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The person in charge of the coordination of civil society in the territory of Mambasa, Marie Noel Anatone, has indicated that 28 hostages have arrived since Friday in the town of Mayunwano, while 15 have arrived in Some, in the surroundings, after escaping from the fighting in Yolo.
“When you talk to the hostages, they tell you that they were brave young people generally known as ‘Wazalendo’ who confronted the ADF, an opportunity they took to flee,” Anatone explained in a statement given to the Congolese news portal Actualité. “They have told us that it was not the military who released them,” she stressed.
For his part, the administrator of the Mambasa territory, Jean Baptiste Matadi Muyapandi, has indicated that 23 people were released after a military operation launched after an attack carried out on June 27 in the area that left at least five dead and several kidnapped. .
The armed group was created in the 1990s and is especially active in the eastern DRC, where it has been accused of killing hundreds of civilians. Their goal would be to return to Uganda, where they left in 2003 after several military operations that drastically reduced their capabilities.
The ADF suffered a split in 2019 after Musa Baluku — sanctioned by the United Nations and the United States — swore allegiance to the jihadist group Islamic State in Central Africa (ISCA), under whose banner it has operated since then. DRC and Uganda signed a defense agreement in December to carry out joint operations in eastern DRC.
